Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cambridge yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cambridge is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States. The population was 827 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Ames, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a part of the larger Ames-Boone, Iowa Combined Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1856. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 827 in 2010, 827 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Cambridge in 1911
Passages that mention Cambridge, cut from the printed page as they were published.
sheeting on Qiild's resitlencc. the Warrick house, was hauled from the sawmill on I'our Mile and is good black walnut lumber. The floor of this house was from the first logs sawed in the Josiah Chandler mill just north of the bridge over the channel at Cambridge. George went after it on Sunflay, crossing Skunk at the old bridge a mile below Cambridge, and got it as far that day as a slough west of Tom Hemstock's farm, where he left it for the night. Next day he brought the precious white-oak hoards to their destination. There was no road, not even a track, and oxen made the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
jjossibly be built, from Des Moines to the Xorthwestern railroad ; and to this end, it was manifestly easier to follow the divide to Ames with no bridge of consequence excepting that over Squaw Fork than to come u|j through Cambridge and cross Skunk Bottom. But this conclusion was not accepted until the matter had been very thoroughly thrashed out. As early as January, 1866, the subject was actively mooted and from time to lime meetings were held, committees ap- ])ointed. subscriptions raised and general activity manifested. Money was
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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